Going After the God-Fearing

Here is some more about Obama seeking the support of the evangelical community, this time from the CBN, aka the Christian Broadcasting Network. That is Pat Robertson's network, you know, "9/11 was God's way of punishing liberals and gays" or whatever the exact quote was. And here CBN is, writing what seems like a quite dispassionate article about what Obama is up to, how it is going, and what it all means. They believe that if he makes a small but meaningful inroad into that "values" voting bloc he is going to become President. Remember, every percentage point Obama gets is one taken away from McCain.

"If he (Obama) can get up (to?) 21 to 30 percent (of evangelical voters) he's gold," Berlinerblau said. "And that's exactly what he's doing. He's going to fissure off this progressive evangelical voter."

Arthur

Weekend Update - June 28th

• We start out with this very clever techno-remix of Alaska's homeboy idiot Ted Stevens "A Series of Tubes," from YouTube.


• Arthur writes: I kind of heard some rumblings about how under-40 evangelical Christians are trending Obama and environment, as in "stewardship of the earth" Christianity instead of old testament, "stone your son if he be disobedient" kinds. But this stuns me. I honestly did not spot this angle on the tiff between James Dobson and Obama. (And here's a tremendous Times article on the subject.)


• Earth in crisis, food and water increasingly scarce, people freaking out. Should you join them? Mark Morford says we are doomed! Sort of.


• At a fundraiser yesterday in Newport Beach, California, John McCain said he relished his second-place status. "We are behind, we are the underdog,'' McCain says. "That's what I like to be.'' It seems to me that the very least we can do for John McCain is to work to help him stay exactly where he "likes to be".


• Gotta love the headline writers at Think Progress. John McCain going both ways for gays?


• "Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity." George Carlin is dead at 71. There will never be anyone like him.


• Guess who's sponsoring the Federal Marriage Amendment. This is when politics gets really funny. C'mon, just guess.

Late Breaking Candidate News

It was too late to make the weekend update, but important enough it couldn't wait. We're still waiting for comments from E.P. Rush on this. When I mentioned it this morning, he was still too hungover to comprehend.

A bit of news from one of the local channels in Oregon.

Sign That The Apocalypse Is Near

Americans "proud" to have Obama running for President? In a Fox News poll?

Argggghhhhhhhh

This is a primer that points the way for Obama in the next months. He seems to need to convince skeptics that he "loves America". I think that is a case that he can make easily, by pointing out that he is the one that loves and is trying to defend our Constitution, while McCain is not so conversant with the whole idea, since he was a legendarily crappy student, coasting through the Naval Academy on his family reputation.

Arthur

Weekend Update - June 21st

• Happy first day of summer. Let's get started. Vincent Bugliosi successfully prosecuted Charles Manson, among many others, and now he's written a book: "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder." Hey, it's a Must Read on the Bad Hat list.


• Honey, grab the camera. Hell appears to be completely frozen over. Wait, better switch to video mode, because I believe I see some pigs flying, too. Mark Morford reveals the most incredible string of words you've never heard before. Plus: Bill O'Reilly loses!


• Haunted by the ghosts of Vietnam, John McCain, the one-time maverick, has transformed himself into just another liberal-bashing fearmonger. Matt Taibbi writes about "Full Metal McCain."


• Here's the reason so many marriages are failing these days. It's all because the gays are getting married. I just knew it.


• The first time I saw this ad on TV I damn near burst into tears. John McCain, YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!


• Back in 2002, John McCain was on SNL and he played a husband...oh hell, this is just one of the creepiest videos I've ever seen of this man.


• Holy shit. What's going on here? A soldier gets blown up in Iraq, they patch him up, and send him back!? What's wrong with this picture? Let me count....


• Here's the [AUDIO] version of Scotty McClellen testifying before Congress. This is just for fun, because, as we all know, nothing will ever come of all this. If anyone should be impeached, it's Nancy Pelosi, who put impeachment "off the table" months ago. But of course, that's just my opinion.


• What's with the sexual problems surrounding the GOP? I'm pretty sure they're not ALL perverts. But there seems to be something odd about the repressive nature of conservatives that makes many of them just snap. Here's just another example.


• Speaking at a dinner for the conservative American Spectator magazine, T. Boone Pickens said that he'd give $1 million to anyone who could prove that anything the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had said about Kerry was false. Well, pay up, asshole.


• John McCain has said that Donald Rumsfeld will “go down as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.” And golly, Rummy can't bring himself to endorse McCain. Go figure.
• Check out the new "Olbermann" video update, to your lower left of this blog. I'll try to change it at least twice a week. Happy SUMMER! Love to all - Rush

Wall Street Journal Editorial

Again, there is a huge disconnect, always has been, between the news reports in the Wall Street Journal, which rank as among the best American journalism from any paper, and the WSJ Editorial page which is right-wing, plutocracy forever, let's privatize everything and sell it-focal. Horrific nonsense, most of the time, treasonous garbage and lies the rest of the time. Here is one example of an urban fairy tale about how popular John McCain is among the "Iraqi people" in the form of four stooges sent on a US junket, presumably by the Defense Department or State Department in order to gin up support for perpetual war/perpetual occupation.

For those who have not followed the current "Status of Force Agreement" discussions between the US and Iraq (which BushCo is trying to shove through without letting Congress know anything about this secret treaty) in short, things are not going so well. The US side is keeping its secrets, but the Iraqis have started to publicly explain what they see as wrong about the treaty. Their complaints? The agreement is open-ended, in that it has no end date. US troops would not be subject to Iraqi law or control. The US could construct and maintain as many as 50 permanent military bases in Iraq. But hey! there would be just huge buckets of "respect" for Iraqi sovereignty! You betcha! Heaps! We loves them rag heads! And by Gad, the WSJ Editorial page assures us, they loves us! Was this war worth it, or what? Almost makes yuh wanta go out and start another, so we can have more success like this, doesn't it? Heck, one more? why not ten more? If one is good, wouldn't ten be better? Then EVERYONE will love us as much as these four (carefully selected) Iraqis do! Heck, let's invade France, so they can start to love us too! We'll MAKE those silly fromage-eaters love us, whether they like it or not!

On the other hand, for those of you who might have some commie-pinko ideas about that world peace thingie, here are some interesting statistics about who the Muslims of the world really are, and why it has been so terminally stupid of the Bush administration to rave about "Islamo-fascists". By doing so they served to insult the entire Muslim world of roughly 1.5 Billion people.

The most common misconception is that all Muslims are Arabs. Guess what? It turns out that only 17% of Muslims in the world are Arab. About 270 million of them. So who are the rest? Africa is about 27%. Asia (if you subtract the Middle East, which is technically part of Asia) 52% Where are they? Indonesia 200 million, Pakistan 150 million, India 140 million, Bangadesh 130 million. By comparison, let's look at Lebanon which has a Muslim population of, want to guess? 2.3 million. A little over 2 million? While Bangladesh has 130 million Muslims, but we never hear about it? How can that be? And if we combine the Muslim populations of India and Bangladesh they total 270 million, as large as the entire Arab population in the Middle East, but have you ever heard anything about the Muslims in Bangalore causing a ruckus? There have been outbursts of sectarian strife in India, but it pales by comparison to the strife in the Middle East. And it largely consists of those peaceful Hindus killing Muslims.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that there are very real problems in the Middle East, and yes, they involve Muslim populations, and yes it calls for our attention. But the attention it warrants is intelligent attention, not the ravings of a born-again drunk preppie. Nor, I would suggest, the bright ideas of a former navy pilot who seems to have trouble telling a Shia (10% of the Muslim population of the world) from Sunnis (the other 90%, though a minority in Iraq).

Arthur

A Great Frank Rich Editorial

The money quote in this excellent article is this:

As the Clinton-Obama marathon proved conclusively, a photo finish is essential to the dramatic and Nielsen imperatives of 24/7 television coverage.

That should tell us all that we need to remember about the primary race, and what we need to remember about the general election. But while it may be annoying, obvious, irresponsible and confusing, that is not all bad. If the election campaign breaks the way I sense that it may, the greatest risk may be complacency. Never underestimate the complacency of the American people, the GOP certainly doesn't. They have signaled loudly and clearly that they are planning to go negative early, often and hard. What does that mean? It means they will be working (through surrogate groups) to paint Barack Obama as a socialist, Marxist, elitist, Communist, Muslim, radical black, corrupt, homosexual, liar, a sleeper Muslim "Meccan Candidate", someone who is too weak to lead, an ivory-tower academic, not a regular guy, someone whose wife runs his life, a black man, a black nationalist, disloyal, someone who took the oath of office on the Koran, a traitor, someone who never enlisted in the army, someone the soldiers will not trust or follow, someone who has no sympathy for the working class, someone who will ruin our economy with his liberal ideas, someone not fit to shine John McCain's shoes and someone who is unfit to serve in the Senate, let alone as President.

We may think we already have heard these themes, but what we heard were just the "try outs" for each negative theme. Now three or four of those will be selected and the airwaves will be carpet-bombed with those slurs. And worse. And they will have a negative impact, particularly on those who are wavering at this point. But with as strong a showing as this, since Obama seemed to pick up support during the primaries the more attention voters paid to him, the odds of people being able to shake off negative advertising and avoid complacency strike me as pretty good.

Arthur

Weekend Update - June 14th

• From StupidVideos.com, and Cousin Steve, it's "The Hillary Hand Gestures Show."


• Mark Morford thanks George Bush. Yep. That's what I said.


• At the moment, Barack Obama is winning a smaller share of Democrats than John Kerry did on Election Day four years ago. Yet Obama is beating John McCain by six points in the latest Gallup Poll. How can this be? E.J. Dionne points out the Democratic Tide On the Rise.


• Tim Russert died yesterday, much too young. p.m. carpenter gives a Brief Farewell to a Good But Short Life.


• What's different about the USOSC, and formerly the USSC, is that their members wear military uniforms and rank. This is not only deceptive. IT'S ILLEGAL! Welcome to the sick and twisted world of evangelical ministries and para-church organizations operating within the military. Boo-yah, indeed.


• Senator John McCain today called the Supreme Court decision protecting the right of habeas corpus for prisoners in Guantamo Bay “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” And the monkey said "What?!"


• The Fox network has released a statement saying it should not have referred to Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, as “Obama’s Baby Mama.’’ I got nothin'.


• Here are Dennis Kuchinich's 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush.


• Here's a treat: A tremendous interview with 82-year-old Gore Vidal.

I Agree (in part) With Bill Kristol? (ARRRRGH!)

(Even though we've stopped reading the New York Times since the silly bastards hired William Kristol, the founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, as an op-ed writer, Arthur discovers something about Kristol he agrees with. End Times, indeed.)

In a sign that the End Times may now be upon us, or rapidly approaching, I am stunned to report that for the most part I agree with an Op-Ed column written by one of the more pointless human beings who ever clasped a pen between his prehensile digits and tried to write intelligent commentary on the same world that we all live in.

In proof that monkeys with typewriters probably could produce intelligible sentences, it seems that Bill Kristol was able to pound on the keyboard of his computer in such a way as to produce entire sentences with demonstrable content.

Okay, let's just say I don't like him or agree often with him and leave it at that. But even a dolt like Kristol, except for his obligatory "things are going great in Iraq" last paragraph, thinks McCain is a truly, amazingly, stunningly crappy candidate. I agree.

Too bad about that Obama boy getting all "lofty" like that. Nowadays that is sort of like someone getting "uppity" I believe. Those dark- skinned folks are not supposed to be "lofty," though it is permitted that they be "careful," "measured," "doubtful," "unconvincing," and "struggling". But "lofty?"

No, only right-wing white guys are permitted to do that.

Arthur

P.S.: When Ross Perot says you are an opportunist, you gotta be pretty evil.

P.S.: Ron Paul rips McCain a new one. (YouTube)

But Let's Hear What The GOP Is Saying

Okay, first the background. "Newsmax" is the brain-child of Richard Mellon Scaife. Ever watch the "Clinton Chronicles" produced by the "Arkansas Project" that talked about how Arkansas was turned into a haven for coke-smugglers who flew in to the Mena, Arkansas airport and then partied with Bill Clinton at the Governor's Mansion and how people were killed and so on? Great stuff! Scaife spent $3 million funding the effort.

Okay, so now Scaife is trying to get a hard-right Newsweek off the ground by starting up an online service. Not working too well. But it publishes reliably right-wing crap, so when something on Newsmax takes an anti-Republican position, ever, that is breaking news.

So here is what one of their fawning writers says about McCain. Boy, is he pumped! Not really...

My favorite quote is:

"Like Dole, then, we are left with a tired, old, and suspect candidate who is facing his last hurrah. One can only hope he doesn’t fall off a platform somewhere."

Now understand, I have nothing against age, as such. My complaint comes when someone's ideas are old. McCain's are timelessly awful.

Arthur

"The Video Barak Obama Does Not Want You to See!"

There appear to be two sources for the "Michelle Obama is seen on video raving about 'whitey' in a panel discussion". One is Larry Johnson, former CIA operative who enjoyed a period of fame as a television personality on CNN when they wanted to talk about the CIA. Since that several year period Johnson fell in love with Hillary Clinton, and loved well but not wisely. He is prone to ravings. In this instance he appears to have picked up a story from Roger Stone. Who's Roger? Stone is a Nixon era dirty trickster who has spread crap and traps for Democrats ever since. His greatest coup was in personally taking down Dan Rather, by a reverse sting. He fed Rather real data about the Bush military record, but the material was transcribed using modern word processing fonts that were not available when the original documents were created. Although the data apparently was real (nice touch) the fonts did not exist for Selectric typewriters, or so about a gazillion bloggers maintained and the argument is still raging. The point is that the minute Rather published the stuff (too quickly, Dan not being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree) an entire group of nutcases were ready to jump all over the story with detailed critiques of it. All nicely coordinated. Our brilliant press service took the bait and went chasing after Dan Rather, ending his career as anchor, while dismissing the documents as fakes... which they probably are not.

More recently Roger Stone helped "take down" Governor Spitzer in New York by ratting out his sexual peccadillos, something Stone said he learned from the operator of a bordello in Florida, where Stone sometimes lives with his Cuban wife, where they have a certain notoriety for advertising in "swapping" publications, the couple apparently being curious and adventurous sorts. Stone is THE worst dirty trickster alive. And that is Larry Johnson's great GOP source, though Stone has never shown him the actual tape? Brilliant. But small minds like most neo-cons will always read this kind of garbage and go nuts over it.

There is a lot of fear out there this year. Migod there is an uppity black man runnin' for President! He's going to take jobs away from white folks and give them to neggrahs, you just wait and see!

Interestingly, it appears possible that the entire "whitey" story may have come from this crappy 2006 political novel.

And the theme of white versus black is going to bedevil this election. A reason to give up and stay drunk until November? Nope, this is stuff that has been simmering just under the surface of American life for generation after generation. You know that nice big cross on Skinner's Butte? Did you know that in the teens the local Eugene Klan used to burn crosses there? Gives the whole thing a bit different context, doesn't it? a nice big lighted cross? kind of like a permanently-lighted burning cross, isn't it? Coincidence? Hmm, maybe, but Oregon sent two contingents to the Civil War, one to the North and one to the South. Somewhere I heard that one or both of them just never made it, but it was the thought that counted.

And lastly, here is "The shocking comment that Barack Obama does not want you to hear!!"

...ah, and there is a deranged young gay guy who claims he had wild sex with Obama in his limo while Obama "sucked on a crack pipe". He has become a YouTube celebrity for his videos and there is even a deranged parody of him.

But we all need to understand... before the election is over there are going to be a lot more videos, a lot more rumors, a host of lies, smears, attacks, slander and pander. You may not be aware of it, but in the US the law holds that when you become a "public figure" you become unable to sue for libel. Yup, you heard right. Not only do you have to work your ass off for several years and raise a gazillion dollars to run for high office, others can call you a poo-poo head and a sheep-humper and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. Some fun, 'eh?

Now I am going to tell you something that you need to know. Barack Obama won the Democratic Nomination by assembling one of the smartest groups of political operatives available and guiding them by example to concentrate on the task at hand and not waste time on fighting or squabbling. Famously, after one debacle on the campaign where $20 million had been invested only to produce two losses, Obama was reported to have said to his working group with a big smile, something along the lines of, "I could be really upset about this, but I'm not sure we have time, so I'm not going to". Contrast that with John McCain, so legendarily thin-skinned that he regularly cusses out his Senate colleagues, many of who believe he lacks the temperament to be President.

But what I am forced to admit is that McCain is really good at is being the subject of amusing YouTube videos.

Here is the latest example. Oh, and all YouTube videos have a counter below them that shows how many times people have watched that video, right? This one seems to have had this many (so far): Views: 1,713,549 ....so nearly two million people have taken the trouble to go watch this wry and ultimately damning video.

And what I like about the Democratic partisan attacks is that they have a purpose, while GOP attacks and the attackers are just deranged pit bulls, equally willing to chew up a baby or a burglar. They don't care, they get paid either way.

So we've all got a choice this year. Dark creepy and stupid things, fear, racist undertones, slander and dirty tricks. Or something else. Hmm, gosh, don't rush me now... I am surfacing nicely this morning, but don't rush me...

Arthur

Weekend Update - June 7th

• What the hell's the big deal about Obama? Is he an enlightened being? Mark Morford explores the possibilities.


• The God-O-Meter. Stuff like this gives Republicans nightmares.


• Hillary suspended her campaign just about 2 hours ago. Barak Obama is our nominee. This country has come a very long way. How long? Check out this article by Rick Perlstein entitled "The Meaning of Box 722."


• Gotta love him: Richard Clarke says of the architects of the Iraq War "We Shouldn't Let These People Back Into Polite Society."


• To what extent is reporting on an unsubstantiated rumor simply spreading that rumor? There have been, recently, insinuations circulating around the internet and cable news shows alleging video footage of Michelle Obama’s use of a derogatory term about white people. Click here for Barak's response to this, and see Arthur's essay above.


• And More on this subject from The Ostroy Report: The Sleazy GOP Attack Machine Kicks Into High Gear. Welcome to "F**K Whitey" and "RadicalVille."

Vice President Hillary Clinton?

Is it going to happen? Is it going to be an "Obama-Clinton" ticket?

As much as we'd like it, I have my doubts. Hillary seems to have finally noticed the lights dimming on her party, and started giving everyone back their coats. Thank you and good night. It's been fun. Hubby Bill's even run out of steam, and his face is returning to it's normal color. So now is she going to ask Obama for the number two spot?

Her communications director Howard Wolfson says she's not seeking the vice-presidency and carefully adds "no one speaks for her but her." Okay. But then Bob Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television and a Clinton supporter, sent a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus Wednesday urging the group to encourage Obama to choose Clinton as his vice presidential pick. He said he was doing so with her blessing.

But in spite of the "dream ticket" factor, and in spite of the nonsense of some of Hillary's supporters saying they will now vote for McCain, I get a feeling that Barak won't pick Hillary for several reasons. The biggest one is her baggage. She got BIG baggage, baby.

At any rate, we should know very soon. Keep breathing.


JP

Betting On McCain Or Obama

Weirdly, one can bet money on an online Wall Street Journal site as to which candidate will win the election. I kid you not. The current bets are:

Obama 59.8%

McCain 36%

So what the heck does that mean? It means that people who think they represent the "smart money" think that it is not very likely that John McCain is going to win the Presidential election. And if he is not likely to win, they may well decide that the smart thing to do is to invest in the Democratic Party and to start re-tooling their connections with Democrats and recast their corporate image as "clean and green" and socially responsible. A lot of that will of course be absolute bullshit. But in the process, some good will get done and some changes are more likely to happen. Politics is the art of the possible, not ever the attainment of the ideal. But a nice 24 point spread between Obama and McCain?

That's going to make it a lot easier for Obama and the Democratic Party to raise enough money to fight off the hard core rightwing special interests.

Arthur